How the last handmade axes were made in America

DeadboxHero

DeadboxHero

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
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Mar 22, 2014
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[YouTube]Qr4VTCwEfko[/youtube]

1964

The last axe factory in Maine filmed monthes before closing

All that experience and craftsmanship

Gone

:(
 
I've seen the video before. It is sad we (USA) don't make things like this anymore. In the past "Made in USA" was a statement of quality the world relied upon. Now, it means virtually nothing.

SJ
 
yep, watched it many times.
heartbreaking really when you see with your own eyes how this country was able to do things in the past and what we've come to in the present.
 
Thank goodness America has virtually none of that style of manufaturing left. We can thank Richard Nixon.
Despite the cheezy dubbed sound effects, Its a cool video for sure. It depicts a serious sweatshop & hazards abundant.
 



What a beauty



I loved how the said everything was made by eye and muscle, no measurements

That power hammer is very ingenious, it's just a big maple log


I was sad to hear that such a skilled worker was only making a $1.20 an hour and that he would make double if he left to saw mill to sweep the floors



Cold brine quenched? Interesting, I thought they would have used oil.
 
Cold brine quenched? Interesting, I thought they would have used oil.
Click to expand...
Suppose brine suited their heat & temper recipie...
But I bet the workers cared less & appreciated brine quench. A nasty dirtpit factory like that, last thing you need is oil quenching.
 
I love that video too, and watch it probably every couple of months. I always note that they are working with an oil furnace, grinding metal away all day without masks with cigarettes hanging out of their mouths. My lungs are crying just watching that. Anyway, certainly this could be done today in a safer cleaner manner.

I would say that there are still many skilled people hand making high quality axes and other cutting tools here, it's just that for the most part it is small scale and the items are understandably expensive.
 
It is our very good fortune that the filmmaker chose to document this operation back in 1965. You can already tell the business is at death's door by how many axes they produce during a given day within that large facility. In that exact same year Walters, Canadian bit player in the global axe industry, was producing 1000 axes per day (between 7am to 2 pm) using only 2 workers to make the heads using then-new closed die forging. Owner Morley Walters had already seen the writing on the wall just after WWII and had recruited a crackerjack tool & die maker to modernize production in order to remain competitive.
E & S didn't die on it's own, but rather because it couldn't compete and no one (back then) was willing to buy axes that cost 2-3X as much.
 
jblyttle said:
I would say that there are still many skilled people hand making high quality axes and other cutting tools here, it's just that for the most part it is small scale and the items are understandably expensive.
Click to expand...

Yeah, and they tend to be different sorts of axes - there's lots of people hand-forging little Swedish thin bit axes or those Last Of The Mohicans-style tomahawks out of bar stock, but to do a big five-pound head is a bit beyond the scope of most small blacksmiths.

And yes, they're more objets d'art rather than tools. To me, for axes, function is the form.
 
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